


The Fool

by galpalaven



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: ?? kinda??, F/M, Pining, Post-Relationship, Pre-Relationship, also????, i accidentally wrote julian another book im sorry, now an AU with the release of Strength, takes place a few days or so after The Chariot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galpalaven/pseuds/galpalaven
Summary: In which it is apparentlymuchharder to avoid someone in Vesuvia than one might think.





	1. Tattletale

In hindsight, Nox _probably_ should have expected this outcome, when she ran into Mazelinka earlier in the day and asked her if she wouldn’t mind sharing some of her recipes—because those _were_ spell ingredients on that list, and she’d had surprisingly little training in the finer points of potion making.

It had been overcast on her way into the slums, though she’d only been drifting that way this morning because she wanted to see if one of the bottles she’d spotted behind the counter at the Rowdy Raven had _actually_ been genuine firewhiskey or not. The only problem was that she still wasn’t actually sure where that bar _was_ , as she realized that every time she’d been down this way, it had either been late afternoon or the dead of night. The winding streets and shadowy alleys looked much different during the day, with sunlight and people everywhere.

She was trying to use her magic to guide her back to the bar (and it wasn’t working, she realized after she passed the same fruit stall a third time) when someone caught the edge of her shawl, tugging insistently enough that it couldn’t have been an accident.

“Mazelinka?” Nox asked, lowering her hood and smiling. “Is that you?”

“Looking for Ilya?” the old woman guessed immediately, smiling when Nox choked on the breath she’d been taking. Her face felt extra hot as Mazelinka patted her arm and said, “My, you’re almost as easy to fluster as he is.”

Clearing her throat uncomfortably, Nox shook her head. “Ah, I’m not—I was looking for the Rowdy Raven, actually.”

“…You’re going to drink this early in the day?”

Nox blinked. “No? _No_ , I was going to… I was going to see if they had a brand of whiskey I like. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere in the city since I first moved here. I was going to buy a bottle to take home.”

Mazelinka nodded thoughtfully at that, gesturing for Nox to step to the side of the street with her to avoid the throngs of people out to get their shopping done early. Her gaze caught on the old woman’s basket after a second, and she decided that maybe alcohol wasn’t where the day was going to lead—especially since her magic had had her walking circles around this block for a half hour.

“Actually, do you think you might be interested in teaching me how to make that potion you made Jul—Ilya? I’ve always wanted to learn more practical spells like that.”

Mazelinka looked pleasantly surprised, eyes twinkling as she looked up at her.

“Your master’s taught you well, if you recognized spell ingredients while you were so distracted.”

Nox coughed again uncomfortably, embarrassed, though she wasn’t sure which part was _more_ embarrassing—the word _master_ (Asra had no idea how glad she was that he didn’t want to be called that anymore) or the insinuation that she’d been so taken with Julian the other day that she couldn’t think straight.

…Though, that was a fair assumption for Mazelinka to make, all things considered.

Humming tunelessly, Nox ran a hand through her short hair, brushing her fringe away from her eyes and avoiding Mazelinka’s teasing gaze. “Yes, well…I’m—full of surprises, I guess.”

Mazelinka just laughed at that, gesturing with her hand to bid Not to follow her as she continued down the street that Nox had been wandering down aimlessly. Almost unconsciously, Nox found herself scanning the crowd as she walked, expecting to see a flash of red hair at any moment. A small part of her was hoping to see him, and another, much larger part was terrified of what would happen if she did. She wasn’t sure whether or not she’d be able to handle that very well, so soon after… _well_ …

“I haven’t seen him around for a few days,” Mazelinka said, reading the expression on Nox’s face a little too well. When Nox winced, the old woman chuckled to herself and added, “Though, I only see him these days when he’s breaking into my home.”

Despite herself, Nox found her lips curling at that. “That was how we met,” she told her idly, as they rounded a corner and her familiar little hut came into view.

“Oh? That doesn’t surprise me.”

“I threw a bottle at his head.”

_That_ made her laugh, and Nox watched with amusement as Mazelinka tossed her head back and chortled. “From what I know of you so far, that doesn’t surprise me either. It also doesn’t surprise me that that didn’t deter him in the slightest.”

Nox worried her lower lip between her teeth at that, watching Mazelinka dig for her house keys and fiddling with a loose thread on her bag. “Well,” she sighed, shrugging nervously. “I don’t think the bottle was what deterred him, if we’re being honest.”

Mazelinka paused then, frowning. With suddenly piercing intensity, she peered up at Nox, who shrunk back a little under such scrutiny. She didn’t say anything for several heartbeats, and when she did finally say something, it was with a shake of her head as she turned back to the door. “Typical Ilya. I’ll have to have a talk with him about that next time I see him.”

“Oh, no,” Nox gasped, plastering a smile on her face. “No, it’s okay. Please. I’m fine, really. It’s not something you need to—”

“The happiest I’ve seen him in years and he goes and mucks it up,” her host grumbled, moving to the kitchen to unpack her groceries. Slamming a vegetable on the counter, smirking a little when Nox jumped something awful, she fixed Nox with a firm look. “How long did it take before he went and broke it off?”

Nox scratched at her nose, wandering around to the other side of the counter and leaning on it. “Um…like, a day? Maybe a little less than that?”

Mazelinka shook her head, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. “I swear, that boy is the stupidest smart person I have ever met.”

“It’s alright,” Nox sighed, propping her chin up on her hand. “It probably wasn’t a particularly good idea anyway.”

“When is romance _ever_ a good idea?” Mazelinka shot back, unpacking the last of her groceries. “He didn’t even give you a fair chance.”

“Well, he wasn’t comfortable with it. Nothing I can do about that,” she replied quietly, watching Mazelinka bustle around her tiny kitchen (and smiling a little at the grumbling she answered with). Distantly, the sound of thunder rumbled overhead, and Nox slumped a little lower against the counter at the thought of having to make her way home in the rain.

Maybe if she asked nicely, Mazelinka would let her sleep in the hiding hole.

“Nox, dear, will you do me a favor and close the window before the rain starts to come in and soak the floor?”

Nox just hummed in response, pushing off of the counter to walk over to the open window, dropping her bag on the table and smiling faintly at the healing dragon’s breath as it reached for her shirt when she got close enough. She was about to reach up to close the shutters when—

“Mazelinka, I’m sorry I— _oh_!”

Nox and Julian stared at each other for a solid ten seconds, both of them blinking curiously (Julian looked particularly confused—like he’d somehow stumbled into the wrong house), until she processed why he must be trying to climb in. Grabbing for his coat without another word, she tugged him through the window, closing it behind him. She leaned against the sill as he gasped, stumbling a few steps and bracing his hands against his legs. She and Mazelinka exchanged a glance, before Mazelinka moved her gaze to their newest arrival, a single eyebrow arching at his disheveled appearance.

“Nice timing, Ilya. We were just talking about you.”

Nox flinched at that, gritting her teeth as her ears burned and his entire face went red. She looked away the second he turned to her, but that didn’t quite stop him from asking, “Did you come here to _tell_ on me?”

“ _No_ ,” she responded immediately, annoyance flaring. “I came here to learn some of her spell recipes.” Crossing her arms and glaring, she added, “Not everything revolves around you.”

He didn’t seem to have an argument for that, nodding in what seemed like reluctant agreement as Mazelinka moved to the fireplace. Nox shifted her feet uncomfortably, eyes on their host instead of him, before she realized that Mazelinka was frowning at the chimney.

“Agh,” she groaned, poking at the damp firewood. “Looks like we won’t be cooking for a while.”

“Or, I could help,” Nox murmured, brushing past Julian to stand by the cauldron hanging in the fireplace. Smiling at the old woman, Nox snapped her fingers, and a fire roared to life in the fireplace, untouched by the water from the rainstorm overhead.

“What a nice trick. You must be fun at parties,” Mazelinka said airily.

Nox laughed. “I used to work parties, actually. Rich people love fire-dancers.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Which part?”

“The part about you being a fire-dancer.”

Nox smiled as she crossed the room to where she’d set her bag down on the kitchen table. “Fire magic runs in my family. My dad was the one that said I had the countenance for performance, though. I’m quite loud and melodramatic anyway—might as well make a show out of it.” She shrugged as she put her bag back on her shoulder. “Anyway, that’s a story for another time. I’ll get out of your way.”

“No, I can—,” Julian started, reaching for her blindly as if to stop her.

“Julian, it’s fine,” she interrupted flatly, cocking a hip as she finally looked up at him. He looked—fairly upset, actually. “ _I’m_ not wanted by the castle guards for crimes against the state—and a little rain never hurt anyone.”

“ _I’m_ the one that’s intruding.”

“For your safety! It’s _fine_ , I—"

“ _Both of you shut up._ ”

They both straightened up immediately, startled, and Julian struck his head against the dirt roof again, hissing as he rubbed at the back of his head. Blinking down at Mazelinka, Nox and Julian exchanged a sheepish look as she put her hands on her hips and continued, “You’re both staying for lunch because you are both _adults_ and I have too much food here for just myself. You’ll just have to suck it up for a few hours.” She pointed angrily at the kitchen table and the two chairs around it.

“ _Sit_.”

Numbly, Nox and Julian both followed her order without a word, dropping into the chairs heavily, all fight knocked out of them for the moment.

It was quiet for several minutes, almost unbearably so. Nox couldn’t think of anything to say, and Julian, curled in on himself and propping his head up with his hand, bad side facing her as he watched Mazelinka cook, didn’t seem to be eager to break the silence. Eventually, Mazelinka sighed, pouring two steaming mugs of whatever it was she’d been making, setting the drinks down on the table in front of them.

“Drink,” she said, gesturing to the mugs. “It’ll warm you up while I see about cooking us something to eat.”

 

* * *

 

It had been nearly thirty solid minutes of silence when Mazelinka apparently decided enough was enough.

Nox had been staunchly avoiding Julian’s gaze, even when she could feel him looking at her every so often, when Mazelinka stomped up to the table. Nox looked up, expecting to be yelled at in all honesty, but all Mazelinka did was catch Julian by the ear and pull him out of his seat with a growl of, “I need to speak with you.”

He grumbled protests the whole way, and the sight of him bent so far over to accommodate her apparently very strong grip on his ear as she dragged him across the room might have been funny, had Nox not been so busy wincing. She hadn’t meant to start anything with his— _whoever_ Mazelinka was to him. (She called him Ilya, but he called her by her name, so…she _probably_ wasn’t his mother, right?)

She found her gaze wandering around the room, lingering briefly on the curtain that led to the bedroom, before she started to bounce her leg under the table, trying her very best to avoid eavesdropping. Which was proving to be very hard in a house with no doors—a realization that had heat crawling up her neck. If it was this easy for her to hear them arguing in the next room, despite the way they were trying to keep their voices to a low hiss, how much of their banter had Mazelinka heard the other night?

“And I— _ouch_ —stop _hitting me_!”

“I’ll stop hitting you when you stop saying such stupid things! Idiot boy!”

“What do you want me to _do_? Go in there and—and sweep her off her feet and take her on the kitchen table??”

Nox choked on the last bit of drink she’d been sipping at, inhaling it so deeply that it sent her into a coughing fit, eyes watering as she pounded on her own chest in the hope that she’d be able to dislodge the liquid that had slid down the wrong hole. Holding her breath in an attempt to stifle the urge to cough, she covered her eyes with her hand, cheeks burning. Squeezing at her forehead, she wondered maybe if all of this wasn’t some awful fever dream, if any moment now she was going to wake up to Asra shaking her awake and saying something about her having caught a cold in the night.

She’d just propped both elbows up onto the table, rubbing at her face as she coughed a few more times, when she registered the sound of footsteps approaching. Peeking through her fingers, she looked first at Mazelinka, who smiled at her and patted Julian a little roughly on the back—which apparently put a scowl on his face, as he was frowning when she turned her gaze to him. The second their eyes met, the annoyance written all over his face faded, gaze softening to something gentler. Sadder.

He opened his mouth, reaching up to rub at his neck to give him something else to do but look at her.

“I—”

Three loud, insistent knocks on the hut door cut him off, just as Nox had opened her mouth to interrupt him anyway. It seemed, for a brief moment, that even the air inside the little house went still, all of them freezing and exchanging slightly panicked glances. They held perfectly still for another minute, perhaps hoping they’d go away, until the knocks came back and Julian and Mazelinka jumped into action.

“I know you’re in there! There’s smoke coming out of your chimney!” called a male voice from the door.

Nox rose to her feet, grabbing for Julian’s sleeves as he moved to climb into the hiding hole, shaking her head and bringing a finger to her lips. The hiding hole wouldn’t work with three dirty mugs sitting on the table.

“We just want to talk, old lady! It won’t take but a moment of your time!” said a second voice.

“Out the back,” Mazelinka hissed, shoving them both towards the shuttered window. “Quickly now—they won’t wait forever.”

Nox placed a restraining hand against Julian’s chest as she opened the window carefully, peering out into the downpour to make sure the coast was clear. Beneath her hand, she could almost feel Julian’s pounding heartbeat as he breathed as quietly as he could, all tension and heavy apprehension. She reached over and patted his arm after another moment, certain that the only guards were at the door.

“Okay,” she breathed, holding the shutters open as he climbed back out the window. She was about to follow after him when Mazelinka caught her by the elbow, worn fingers digging in enough to hurt.

“You keep him safe,” she ordered lowly.

Nox gave her a tremulous smile, nodding. “Of course. You have my word.”

That was apparently enough, because the old woman nodded once and pushed on her arm, turning to go answer the door. “Alright, go. Hurry.”

Heart racing, Nox climbed out of the window just as Julian had, struggling a little bit to not knock over the dragon’s breath on the windowsill. She pulled the shutters closed behind her, waving her hand to pull the water that had seeped in back out—couldn’t leave footprints in her home for the guards to find. When Nox turned, squinting through the thick, chilly raindrops that cascaded down from the darkened sky, she was surprised to find Julian waiting for her, trench coat pulled up over his head.

“Let’s go,” he hissed. “ _Before_ her guests decide to look out the window, preferably.”

Well, she couldn’t really argue with that.

Nox ducked under his coat with him, small enough to fit up against his side and stay mostly dry. Hopefully, to anyone looking on from a distance, they’d just look like two people trying to make their way home in the rain—and not like a fugitive running from the law and his former thief of a friend.

Hm. Distantly, she wondered how many lies she’d end up telling the Countess by the end of all this.

She felt Julian tense next to her as they went to turn down an alley, backpedalling back out of sight when they caught sight of the uniformed guards chatting at the other end of it. He was gritting his teeth when she looked up at him, and he jumped a little when she slid her arm around his waist, going red-faced as he looked down at her curiously.

“If you keep your head down and we keep walking like this, they’ll have no reason to suspect anything,” she said shakily, noting with a touch of concern that he seemed to be trembling, too. They stood for another beat, unmoving, before she reached up to touch her scarf around her neck. “You want to put this around your face?”

One thick eyebrow quirked and the corner of his mouth twitched into the ghost of a smirk. “I think that might rouse more suspicion than leaving my face uncovered.”

“…Good point.” Taking a quiet, steady breath, she tightened her arm around his waist, sliding her other hand into her pocket. “Ready?”

“Not really.”

She snorted, shaking her head. “We’ll be fine. One step at a time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was supposed to be a prompt fill and evolved into a Monster
> 
> also, hey, look at this sweet commission I got of Nox on [tumblr](http://galpalaven.tumblr.com/post/167724272518/my-arcana-apprentice-nox-by-laskulls-thank)!!!


	2. Fight or Flight

“ _We’ll be fine. One step at a time._ ”

Julian was not having what he would call a good day—he wasn’t even having what he would call an _alright_ day. Between the guards suddenly getting _good at their jobs_ and running into a certain someone at Mazelinka’s, it was like every mistake he’d ever made was coming back at this specific moment to stab him in the back. His ear still throbbed from the iron grip Mazelinka had had on it earlier, even as he and Nox trudged through the cold monsoon that had rolled in this afternoon. It was hot, and he knew it was probably red, but what else was new there? His _entire face_ was probably red.

 _Again_. Because she was touching him and he’s _pathetic._

He’d really been trying to stay true to his word, to avoid her so that he didn’t lose his grip on what little self-control he had left at this point. He was terrified of hurting her, dragging her into his problems when he was sure she had her own to deal with. Problems that involved near-death experiences and breaking and entering and all sorts of things that she didn’t need to be involved with. She deserved so much better than a life like that, than a life spent with someone like him.

 _In fact_ , he thought miserably as they reached a dead end, both of them looking back unhappily at the only way out of this back alley where there were at least two guards stationed, _this is exactly what I was trying to protect you from._

Her fingers were hooked around his belt, he realized suddenly as the feeling of her fingertips against his hipbone made him jolt slightly. She didn’t seem to notice as she leaned around the corner of the alley, eying the guards with a strangely calculating look that made him nervous—almost as nervous as the hand she kept firmly on his hip like she was trying to keep him from running off (and maybe she was, all things considered). He wasn’t sure how she normally dealt with the guards, and she’d certainly been laughing the other night as they ran for it, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea for her to engage them head on. _Especially_ in this part of the city.

“ _Nox_ ,” he breathed, but she just shushed him.

“I think I can distract them long enough for you to slip around them,” she murmured, fingers digging into the wet stone of the building they were hiding behind. Her eyes flashed like gold coins in the light from a nearby apartment as someone opened a door, looking up at him curiously. “Think we’ll be able to run for it from there?”

He made a face, trying to look past the end of the alley to try and get his bearings, but the rain made it hard to tell where they were. He definitely didn’t recognize this particular alley.

“I really don’t know. I’m not sure where we are, exactly, so I don’t know if I’ll know which way to go.” Swallowing thickly, and avoiding her gaze, he hesitantly suggested, “Why don’t you go home? This is my mess to deal wi—”

“ _No_.” He blinked, looking down at her in surprise at the sudden intensity of her voice. “I promised Mazelinka I’d protect you. I’m not leaving you here.” She huffed quietly, and turned to look back down the alley, smiling a little as the guards moved away from the mouth of the alley, moving further down the street. “Friends stick together, Julian.”

… _Friends_? Is _that_ what they were?

He opened his mouth—to say what, he wasn’t sure—only to be interrupted by a new voice from the way they’d come.

“Hey! You, there, what are you doing back here?”

 _Damn_.

They both whirled on the spot, looking directly into the also very shocked faces of not one, but _three_ guards standing in a line at the end of the alley. For a moment, they only seemed to see Nox, standing out from under the cover of his cloak as she had been, but then all three pairs of eyes turned to his face, and he couldn’t quite keep from grimacing at the gasps he could hear over the sound of the rain. They called for the guards who had been stationed down the alley, sounding the alert that _Dr. Devorak_ had been found, and he stumbled back towards the dead end a few steps. Stomach sinking, he glanced back behind them again, hoping to find a building to duck into or—or _anything_ that could get them out of this. Get _her_ out of this, more importantly.

Being a wanted murderer was one thing. Harboring a fugitive wanted for murder had consequences nearly as bad as the consequences for murder in the first place.

She didn’t deserve that.

“ _Julian, watch_ —!”

Her warning came a second too late, as one of the guards rushed him while he’d had his head turned, pushing him back until his back slammed into the wall behind him, head cracking against the stone with the force of the movement. In a flash, there was something cold and sharp pressed against the swell in the middle of his throat, and he tilted his head in response, trying to keep the knife from digging in too deeply, glaring down with courage he didn’t feel at the nameless guard grinning up at him.

“Get _off_!” came Nox’s voice, followed by muffled sounds of fighting from his right. Carefully, he turned his head, and felt his heart sink at the sight.

One of the guards had caught her from behind, arms hooked under hers to keep her still. Another guard had the tip of a spear pointed menacingly at her throat (and another was pointing a spear at _his_ throat, he noticed). The fifth guard, wearing a nicer uniform than the others, approached him with a smug look on his face, hands behind his back. The picture of confidence.

Or perhaps just the picture of arrogance.

“Well, well, well. Look what the storm washed up.” The head guard smiled, oily and self-satisfied, standing just close enough that Julian could almost smell the alcohol on his breath. “Pleasure to finally meet you in person, Dr. Devorak.”

“ _Don’t you touch him_!”

The smile melted off of the guard’s face, and he raised a single grey eyebrow, turning to look back at where Nox was practically seething, fiery golden eyes fixed solely on the man who’d been speaking. One of the guards restraining her laughed, but her gaze didn’t waver. “Or what, little girl? You’ll cry? Petition the castle for mercy?” asked one of them.

If it was possible, the look in her eyes turned even colder, still trained on the man in charge.

“Why don’t you come over here and find out?”

The guard smirked, tilting his head at Julian and watching his face with some sort of sick pleasure swimming in his eyes as he gave the command, “Kill the spare.”

“ _No!”_

A few things seemed to happen at once, then.

Nox gave a feral sort of grin at the command from the head guard, turning to the goons that had her trapped as the one with the spear lined up to skewer her like a kebab. The man who’d been taunting him cursed, a split second before flames nearly engulfed the alley beside them, a flash of overwhelming heat and a roaring _whoosh_. The man with the spear stumbled back, shouting, panicking as he tried to put out the fire on his clothes (though, the rain was already helping with that) and the guards pinning Julian to the wall moved away to go attempt to help their fellows.

In the next moment, Nox pulled both of her legs up to her chest, throwing them back down to the ground and bending at the waist to send the guard behind her careening over her back. Julian winced at the loud _crack_ his head made as it connected with a stone on the ground. Before the last three guards could converge on her, she grabbed the nearest weapon she could find, raising it at the last moment to catch the sword one of them tried to bring down on her head.

The wooden mop she’d grabbed only just managed to keep the sword at bay, having nearly been cut in half as the man pulled away. She wrinkled her nose at it as he pulled away, before snapping it in half over her thigh, and swinging one end at the nearest guard, catching him roughly in the windpipe and smirking to herself when he dropped like a bag of rocks, wheezing.

Distantly, Julian knew he ought to be helping her, but there was something unreal about the whole thing, and he found he could do nothing but stare as she caught the other grunt of a guard by the arm, using his own momentum to send him stumbling head first into the stone wall behind her. It was only when she was surrounded by four groaning, incapacitated men that she finally turned to look at the man in charge.

“That,” he said, hands raised in a placating gesture that Julian was sure was fake, “will cost you severely, _witch_.”

Her only response was to grin, and reach for his face, clamping her hand around his mouth and tugging until he was nearly on her level.

“ _Sleep_ ,” she said simply, and with a spark of purple electricity, the man screamed for a moment, muffled by her hand, before also falling limp at her feet.

She was moving before he could even process what had just happened, seizing him by the wrist and dragging him up the now clear alley as quickly as she could without sprinting. He followed numbly, casting another glance back over his shoulder at where the guards were still mostly on the ground. They’d just reached the end of the alley when a shout came from behind them and, with a breathless laugh, Nox broke into a run up the street, dragging him with her as they went.

He’d started to recognize their surroundings, finally, and caught her before she could run down another dead end, taking the lead now. Julian found himself fighting the urge to grin the more they ran, as her delighted laughter danced through the evening air, hand clasped tight in his own, giggling as she did her best to keep up with him. There was something wonderful about this, despite the fact that they were running for their lives—something deep and primal that had them both laughing as they skidded around another corner, nearly slipping against the still wet stones.

He was starting to think they were going to make it, until another set of guards appeared in front of them out of nowhere, forcing them to take a turn he hadn’t meant to take.

 _Oh, no_ , he thought, digging his heels in and skidding to a halt just as the ground in front of them gave way to a cliff. He just managed to catch Nox around the waist, pulling her back before she could go and fall into the choppy water far below.

One of her hands slid up to the center of his back, the other clutching at the front of his coat as she leaned precariously over the edge to assess the drop thoughtfully. Behind them, the guards’ voices were getting louder.

“Can you swim?” she asked quietly.

“Wha—of course I can swim,” he breathed, glancing back to make sure the guards weren’t upon them yet. “But a fall from this height—that water will turn to stone and it will break every bone in our bodies. We’re cornered.”

Nox did nothing but purse her lips, still considering the drop. “… _Nah_. We’d survive that.”

He shook his head. “ _No_.”

She glanced over his shoulder, flashed him a smile that had his stomach dropping with dread, and shrugged. “No choice.”

“No!” he repeated, fingers tightening on her arm, frantic now. “No, no, nonono _noaaAAAHH—!”_

She _pushed_ him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you tell I was listening to "One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin when I came up with the idea for this part


	3. Heart to Heart

In the few seconds it took them to fall, his entire life disappointingly did not pass in front of his eyes, even as the rough waves and jagged rocks rose up quickly with the promise to finish what fate had started years and years ago. He squeezed his eyes shut just before the impact, grimacing, and then—

The water rose up to meet them, or so it seemed, and he felt like he’d almost been cradled by the surf, cushioning his fall so much that he felt like he’d leaped off the dock and not a damn cliff on the edge of the city. He didn’t even hit the bottom, and in fact barely seemed to submerge very far at all, as he surfaced only a second later, gasping and chilled, but very much just fine.

Nox surfaced near him a beat later, gasping and giggling as she pushed her wet hair back from her face. Her eyes almost appeared to be glowing in the low light, reminding him of a cat caught in the firelight flooding out of a tavern door, but fading as she grinned at him, treading water in the rough surf. Glancing up, she raised a hand and curled her finger to beckon him closer, floating backwards herself so that she was underneath of the rocks.

“Come here,” she murmured. “Get under the outcropping before they figure it out.”

He followed without much thought, swimming closer to her until he could no longer feel the rain that was still steadily falling. When he got close enough to the cliffside, he found that his feet could touch stone, and he sighed with relief, even as the tide jostled them both in their hiding place. Pushing his wet hair out of his face, he looked over to find her watching him, low in the water.

“Sooo...we’re alive,” he said after a moment, awkwardly.

She snorted, wiping at the water that dripped from her nose. “So it would seem,” she agreed with a hum, turning to try and look around the rock formation behind her. “And, if not—hell is a _lot_ colder than I thought it would be.”

Julian gave a sharp bark of laughter at that, surprised at the comment, and almost immediately he pressed his lips together, face burning as she laughed quietly in response. Nox reached out and touched his mouth with cold fingers, raising a finger to her own lips as she giggled, shushing him.

“They’ll _hear_ you,” she breathed, still grinning, a nostalgic look in her eyes as they both seemed to be remembering the other night, when he’d said nearly the same thing to her. Her hand lingered against his skin, honey eyes dropping to his lips wistfully, and she let out a quiet little sigh as she let her hand return to the water.

This close, it was getting hard to remember why he wasn’t allowed to pull her into his arms.

Under the water, one of her hands found his, and she started to swim back towards the rocks behind her, pulling him along so they didn’t get separated. The rock shelf he’d found himself standing on continued far enough around so that he was still standing on it by the time they reached the edge of the cliff face—which was good, because swimming in all these layers wasn’t fun and he had no intention of drowning today.

“Aha!” she gasped, grinning and peering around the edge of the rocks. “I _thought_ there might be a shoreline this way.”

“How can you tell?”

“Can’t you hear the waves on the sand?” she asked softly, and there was something dreamy in the tone of her voice. Her face, where he could make it out, almost looked...well, _sad_.

He squeezed at her hand in what he hoped was a comforting gesture as they continued around the corner. There was, indeed, a shoreline there, waiting for them. It appeared to be mostly abandoned, though a ways down the beach there was a pier with a lone fishing boat bobbing alongside it. This might have been a quiet fishing spot, had it not been raining all day.

Climbing out of the water was almost as bad as falling into it.

Both of them were shivering by the time they managed to drag all of themselves and their wet clothes out of the surf, stumbling towards a small cave in the cliffside. Nox still giggled to herself, even as she began to wring her shirt out, teeth chattering in the chilly late evening air.

The little cave they found looked like it had been used before—dark marks of soot climbing up the walls, and a small circle in the center like people had used it to camp.

 _Or hide from the city guards_ , he thought bitterly, ducking a little to follow her in and out from under the rain (which was at least no longer absolutely pouring).

Shaking her hands to get rid of some of the extra water, she shot him a grin and gestured for him to sit against the wall opposite her. The little cave was fairly cramped for someone his height, so he didn’t argue, already wet and filthy from running through the muck and the rain, sliding down the wall until he was sitting semi-comfortably in the mostly dry sand. Water dripped off of his cold nose, and he sniffled as he rubbed at it, wet gloves doing barely anything to help dry his face.

Nox dropped to her knees across from him, gritting her teeth to keep them from chattering as she poked at the pile of wooden ashes in the center of a fire pit someone had left behind. She hummed thoughtfully, almost to herself, before she said, “I think there should be enough kindling left to warm us up.”

“Good,” he sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. With half a smirk, he added, “Wouldn’t want you coming down with something, after all.”

She glanced up at him as she waved her hand over the remnants of wood, winking as a rune lit up orange in the center of her palm, and then there was a roaring fire flaring to life. The instant source of heat made them both groan softly, leaning closer in their wet clothes to thaw.

For a long, quiet moment, they sat and just watched the fire crackling in between them, lost in their own thoughts. His mind kept wandering back to the last day they’d spent together—to the press of her lips to his skin, the bite of teeth on his neck. He could still hear the pain in her voice as she argued with him—“ _You can’t just_ **_run_ ** _from everything that could ever be good in your life because you’re afraid something bad_ **_might_ ** _happen_.”

He looked up at her as he remembered the words she’d left him with as he turned to leave the other night.

 _“You can always come back._ ”

He’d nearly turned right back around and pulled her back to him at that, his own resolve to keep her safe wavering dangerously at the thought that she wanted him more than she cared about the consequences. More than she cared about the dangers of spending time with a convicted murderer.

 _God help me_ , he thought, watching the firelight play on her face, the way her eyes glittered gold in the light. _I would do anything if it meant we could give this a real chance. If it could just be us against the world—no guards or criminals or anything like that. Just us..._

Uncomfortable with the direction his own thoughts had taken, he returned his thoughts back to what they’d just spent half the day doing—running from the guards. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around how easily she’d dispatched those guards. How had she known how to do that? What kind of life had she led that she could fight off five armed men without so much as breaking a sweat?

And then there’d been the…

“Did you _breathe fire_ at those guards?”

Nox laughed, bringing her gaze from the fire up to his face. Smirking, she said, “Of course I did. You’ve seen me do that trick, remember?”

“Yes,” he agreed, frowning. “Yes, but you had a bottle of alcohol and a match because you’d been dragged into volunteering for those street performers on our way to have lunch at the Raven.”

“And, what, you just assumed I had beginner's luck?” she asked, grinning. When he didn’t answer fast enough, she shrugged, reaching for a piece of kindling that wasn’t completely on fire. After putting out the smoldering end, she held it up in front of her mouth, took a breath and—

_FWOOSH._

The flames that poured from her lips this time were nowhere near the caliber they had been earlier, but they accomplished the job, lighting the end of the stick as Nox smiled and twirled it at him. Distracted, his eyes caught on something on her throat—another glowing orange rune, that reminded vaguely him of the rune on his throat. His curse.

Somehow, he got the feeling that hers was voluntary.

With a sigh, Nox dropped the stick back into the fire in the middle, twisting her wrist in such a way that had the flames dancing just that much higher. It was mesmerizing, the passive control she had over the flames. The last witch— _magician—_ he’d spent time with hadn’t ever specialized in anything like that, as far as he knew.

Well, besides the cards, anyway.

“Do you want to try?” she asked suddenly, smiling when he looked up at her, startled.

He frowned at her. “I can’t—”

But she was already scooting over to sit beside him, offering her hands. “Yes, you can. If I help you.”

“...you haven’t any alcohol on you, have you?”

She snorted with laughter, making him smile as she shook her head, tugging gently on one of his gloved hands. “No, not—it was a specialty trick I used to do at parties. It’s not the breathing fire thing, I promise.”

Curious, Julian watched as she pulled his glove off, though he tensed a little when the murderer’s brand, dark and permanent and damning, came into view. She didn’t seem worried about it, though, stroking her thumb over it gently before she flipped his hand over so that the palm was facing upward.

This was...familiar.

Uncomfortably familiar.

Curling his hand closed, he pulled back a little and asked, “You’re not going to cut me, are you?”

Her eyes flashed with confusion at that, plus something close to indignation, as she shook her head. “ _No_! I—no. God. It’s nothing like _that_. I wasn’t going around slicing children’s hands open. What kind of person do you take me for?”

Julian smiled bitterly, uncurling his fist. “Sorry.”

Nox’s eyes shimmered in the firelight, molten gold inviting him in without a word, and he noticed distantly that he was already leaning in just a little, drawn in with a subtle ache in his chest. She took a deep, slow breath as he watched and, entranced, he found himself doing the same, subtle warmth spreading from where her skin touched his. It spread up his arm slowly, though he could feel his face heating up in response (like it always seemed to, in her presence).

She reached for his other arm then, pulling that glove off, too, as she tugged on his sleeve until he turned to face her completely.

“All magic,” Nox began softly, voice low and smooth, thumbs brushing against the sides of his palms gently, “is just a manifestation of energy. Energy flows through all living things—through the plants, the water, animals, each and every living person. What we do, when we use magic, is simply a manipulation of that energy. Sometimes that comes in the form of flashy fire tricks, sometimes in mixing ingredients to make something that brings out the natural magical qualities of whatever you put into it.

“We can share that energy, sometimes. From person to person, either through curses or blessings, or through a simple touch—we’re always exchanging energy. Just like now.”

As she spoke that last sentence, a tiny flame appeared over his palms, like he was cupping a tiny baby bird. Fascinated, he watched it dance, feeling the strange little pulsing heartbeat that seemed to come with it. Intellectually, he knew it was her hands beneath his that were producing the flame, but it certainly _felt_ like it was his own doing. It flickered and danced with each breath he took, sending more heat spreading across his skin, almost tingling. When he looked back up at her, she was smiling, soft and sweet.

“What’s your favorite color?” she asked, bringing her eyes back to his.

 _Gold, like your eyes_ , he almost said. His gaze dropped to her lips then, and he almost changed his answer to _red_.

“Blue,” he mumbled after a pregnant pause, picking any other color than those. Anything to avoid being too obvious.

Nox smiled, and he watched the light change on her face, the little flame dancing in between them shifting from orange to a cool blue. He felt stranger, lighter almost, heart racing in his chest at how very intimate this seemed. Their breaths were synced, and he couldn’t quite feel her heartbeat through her palms where they cupped his hands, but he had a feeling that they’d matched up with the matching of their breaths.

“Blue it is,” she breathed, but neither of them were looking at the flame they’d somehow produced together anymore.

Bewitched, Julian didn’t notice how he’d been leaning in even closer until she dropped her hands back to her lap, leaning away with a cough and leaving him feeling raw and exposed. Cold.

“Neat, huh?” she asked, leaning against the wall of the cave beside him, plucking up a seashell from the sand nearby. “Not quite as scary as you thought?”

He hummed, slouching, single eye following the lines of her profile as she propped her arm up on her knee, facing the other side of the cave. “ _Invigorating_ ,” he breathed.

That made her smile, and his stomach flipped at the sight.

It didn’t last, though, and it was only a moment later when the smile slipped from her face. Her eyes were trained on the fire then, tilting her wrist to breathe new life into it, trying to fight out the chill flowing in from the sea. Her eyes stayed on the fire as she said, “I’m not mad, you know.”

Nox turned to look at him then, rolling her head against the rock, something like exhaustion settling into her features. “About the whole ‘break-up’,” she raised her hands to put little quotation marks around the word. “I’m not mad. I was sad, and a little disappointed, but—” she turned back to the fire, “it’s not like this is my first time around.”

Julian frowned at that. “How do you mean?”

She paused, just for a moment, considering, before she opened her mouth again and began to speak.

“When I was 18, there was this—sailor. I was in love with her. We spent the entire summer together, and she promised...promised me so many things. Riches and adventure and a life spent laughing—just us and whatever lay just beyond the horizon,” she said softly. Shaking her head, she sighed. “I don’t really know what happened to change her mind. I guess it was just…” Nox shook her head again, shrugging and frowning at the fire.

“There’s no love in this world to compare to a sailor’s love for the sea.” She smiled bitterly, eyes on the rune carved into her palm now, watching it glow orange in the shadow of her hand. “She didn’t even say goodbye. Just left me a letter and a feather from her hat. At least you had the guts to say it to my face, you know?” She tossed away the shell she’d been playing with with another sigh. “I shouldn’t have expected her to love me as much as she loved the water. Shouldn’t have been so naive as to think anyone ever could.”

 _I could love you that much_ , he thought, eye roaming greedily over the contours of her face. _If we had more time, I could love you so much more_.

“I want us to be friends, Julian,” she said then, voice a little steadier now as she turned to look at him. “The other stuff doesn’t change the fact that I like spending time with you.” Then, with a wry smile, she added, “Of course, it won’t change the fact that I still want you, but I wouldn’t let that hurt a friendship. I’ve had plenty of practice with that sort of thing, as it were. You could say I’m a professional, even.”

He didn’t know what to say.

For a long moment, they just stared at each other, shoulder to shoulder, eyes roaming across each other’s faces like they were trying to memorize every little bump and blemish—until she gasped quietly, eyes lighting up. When he opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, she reached up and brushed his hair from his face, both hands coming up to cup his cheeks.

“You’ve got freckles,” she breathed, sounding utterly delighted, thumb stroking gently across his cheekbone, following the curve of the bruise-like shadow under his eye.

He smiled a little, confused. “So do you.”

She squeezed his face a little at that, smushing his cheeks until he was sure he looked especially stupid. With a giggle, she nodded and said, “Yeah, but mine are everywhere. You don’t have to get this close to my face to see them.”

Nox didn’t let go of his face then, like he expected. Her grip loosened, but her eyes stayed on his lips where they’d hesitated, and she let out a quiet little sigh. Dragging her thumb across his bottom lip, and smiling to herself at the flush of heat that spread across his face in response, she murmured, “This is hard.”

He laughed, breathless, and nodded in agreement, reaching up to touch her hands where they still rested against his face. “You’re definitely not making it any easier.”

She grinned at that, mischief dancing in her eyes. “Good.”

He shook his head at her, and this time, when his gaze dropped to her lips, he couldn’t quite help himself. Maybe it was the strangeness of this whole day, maybe it was just poor self-control, perhaps he was just selfish beyond all measure, but he wanted just...one more stolen moment.

Just one more.

“ _Kiss me_.”

It was nothing more than a hoarse whisper, a sound that might have been swallowed up by the steady sound of the sea had Nox not also said the same thing at the exact same moment. They both paused, unsure, before she broke, laughing as she pulled him down to meet her lips, unable to quite stop smiling as she kissed him firmly.

The feeling of her lips on his hadn’t changed since the other night—it was still just as exciting and terrifying as it had been that first time. It started off slow and easy, as he let out a breath into her mouth, the kiss deepening just a little before she pulled back, barely an inch. When he managed to drag his eye open after another second, she was looking up at him, hands still on his face.

His nose brushed against hers as he sighed, “One more?”

And she kissed him again, harder now, rising up on her knees as she slid her fingers into his mostly dry hair. His arms came up to wrap around her waist, pulling her into him as he kissed her back roughly, nearly devouring her like he had before. She let out a muffled noise against his mouth just as her teeth sank into his lower lip, making him groan, too.

He felt her start to pull away, but he couldn’t let her go yet. He begged another, pitifully into her lips, and she smiled as she obliged him, humming against his mouth. His hands fisted into her shirt just as her nails dug into his shoulders and, _God,_ he’d never been more terrified of feeling like this in his life. Terrified of losing her, of hurting her, of—of _her_ if he was being honest. Terrified of how much she could hurt him if something went wrong. Terrified of how much could see himself loving her if things went right.

“Just so you know,” Nox mumbled, finally breaking away enough that she could speak, “I am typically a very affectionate sort of friend. Kisses don’t always mean something.”

He kissed her again, watching her watch him, before asking, “Do you kiss all your friends like this?”

“Hmm. I don’t make a habit of it, but it’s been known to happen occasionally.”

And she kissed him again, one more time, fiddling with something around her neck in such a way that he was afraid she might be trying to take this to another level (not that he would _mind_ , but she deserved a roaring fireplace and a nice bed, not some random cave by the sea). But, all she did when she pulled away again, was pull a key from a chain around her neck.

She offered it to him, and his jaw went slack as he realized what it was.

“I want you to have this back,” she said quietly, but he was already shaking his head.

“I—I can’t take that.”

“You can.”

“I _can’t_.”

Nox finally sat back fully then, pursing her lips as she glared at him. She grabbed one of his hands, putting the key in his palm and wrapping his fingers around it herself. “If we’re going to be _friends_ , then I want you to stay safe. At least until I can clear your name. One more safe house in the city can’t hurt, right?”

Julian couldn’t really argue with that, as much as he wished he could. It was a lovely gesture, but…

“I promise not to come onto you every time you come to my house, okay? This was just a one time thing. We were cold and tired.” He looked up at her again and she winked, though the smirk on her lips didn’t quite reach her eyes. “No big deal. Didn’t mean anything.”

He dropped his gaze back to his hand, to where he could feel the little metal key against his skin, and then he looked back up at her. Tucking the key into one of his pockets, he smiled a little, and nodded towards the mouth of the cave, where the rain had long since ceased.

“Do you think the guards have given up yet?”

Nox shrugged. “Probably. If not—we’ve got plenty of places for you to hide in the shop.” She smiled, holding out her hands for him to take. “Walk me home?”

Heart still aching a little, he managed to smile and nod. At least they were parting on better terms tonight, if nothing else.

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more Nox and Julian stuff, come check out their tag on my [tumblr](http://galpalaven.tumblr.com/tagged/julian-x-apprentice)!


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